How to use Ensign Charting Software and Trading Tips

Main menu

Tag Archives: Refresh

Q: Your Ensign 10 software is fantastic. I really enjoyed Ensign Windows; thought it was very good; and was hesistant to try your new Ensign 10 software because I liked it so much. After installing it over Christmas, and learning it, I find Ensign 10 to be a vast improvement.

Since I started with Ensign over a year ago, I have noticed that there is a restriction relative to how far back the eSignal data feed goes on the Ensign software. Out of curiosity, last week I contacted eSignal to find out why they restricted the data re Ensign software. I was told that for a monthly fee of $10 such is available to 3rd party users.

If we were able to get the extended data from esignal, it would be a tremendous help. I can’t stress the benefit. The ability to create pitchforks on 20 min and 240 min chart that would start further back in time would be a significant and very well received. Is this feasible for Ensign to do?

A: Ensign stores 1 minute database files on your hard disk from which we build your minute based charts such as 20 minutes and 240 minutes. If you have the files, we should be able to build the charts.

The eSignal refresh controls how many days back the minute refresh is available. This is a parameter they pass to us when we connect, and I see on my system it is currently set at 168 days back. In a test of refreshing ES #F for the intraday, the refresh went back to Sep 8th, 2011, which I would estimate is the 168 days back. It is my understanding that by paying the extra money you can get eSignal to change the limit on your subscription to be more than the 168 days back I am seeing. So there should not be any change needed in Ensign to refresh earlier dates.

That said, let me comment there is a work around that will not cost you anything and works for most symbols. Go to the Data Manager form for the symbol and change the refresh source to DTN Market Access. Select an early date and pick a quantity such as 1 month and refresh. DTN will refresh early dates so Ensign has the files. In this manner you can get the database files from DTN for a few years back without subscribing to the extra service from eSignal. This is another value added item as part of your subscription with Ensign 10.

Example: Here is my current folder with data from July 8th, 2011.

My next action was to change the Source to DTN Market Access, select 1 month, and click the refresh button. Now my database is extended back to have more files that are back in June 2011.

Be sure to upgrade to the latest version of Ensign 10 so you have the features as documented in these articles.

Q: I follow B6H2 from the IMM exchange using the BarChart data feed. Normally I refresh data from BarChart, but they recently had an outage and refresh data for a few hours is unavailable. Can I get the refresh I need from DTN Market Access?

A: DTN Market Access does not have data for the IMM exchange. However, you might consider refreshing with data from the CME exchange for symbols that are similar. For example, the CME symbol for the British Pound is @BPH2 .

On the Properties for the chart, select the Data tab and edit the DTN Market Access symbol like this:

Now you can refresh for a couple days to fill in the missing data. Then I suggest you change the refresh source back to BarChart and refresh again for the same time period. BarChart will then replace the data that overlaps, and retain data received from DTN which BarChart lacks. The data refreshed from the CME looks acceptable to me in my testing.

Find CME symbols on the DTN symbol guide that would be substitutes for the IMM symbols you use and do a similar process for other IMM symbols you need to refresh.